


Dinner at Eight

by dizzy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-18
Updated: 2009-11-18
Packaged: 2017-10-03 08:17:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy





	Dinner at Eight

Sam's pretty sure she's never wanted to hit anyone more in her life than Daniel right at this very moment.

Well, strike that. There have been plenty of people she wanted to hit more than Daniel. Goa'uld - pretty much any of them, take your pick. Rodney McKay, for sure. Her father out of sheer stubbornness, because god damn that man can be infuriating some time.

Maybe it's because she's never actually been this angry with Daniel. Maybe that's what makes it different. Daniel's always been the good guy. The nice one. The friend.

Right now, she's not feeling very friendly toward Daniel.

Or maybe she's feeling a little too friendly.

Yeah. That's striking a little bit closer to home, actually. She glances at Daniel, who is walking right beside her. Really close beside her, close enough that their arms brush every few seconds.

She's still furious with him. She still wants to strangle him. By the way he's glaring at her, he is probably having a few violent thoughts of his own.

Definitely still mad. Definitely still wanting to cause him bodily harm. But she'd also like to do... other things. Things that she doesn't normally associate with Daniel. Naked things.

She sucks in a breath. Beside her, he gives her a strange look.

She knows this is (mostly) her fault. She started it, in a sense. This growing awareness of Daniel as a sexual being has put her on edge. She's touchy about things that never bothered her before. She jumps when he puts a friendly hand on her shoulder or push her hair out of her face. She finds herself noticing the way he smells, the color of his eyes.

She'd really like to not notice these things anymore, but she's pretty sure that the damage is done. She's been so jumpy for so long that he's sort of adopted the attitude from her. At first he tried to talk things out with her. He approached her on several occasions - usually in her lab, late at night when he knew they'd be assured relative privacy, which only served to make Sam even more uncomfortable. But Daniel doesn't have the patience of a saint and after a few attempts, he obviously came to the conclusion that this wasn't something they could talk through.

Now... now he's just mad. He hasn't put a hand on her shoulder. Today when she stumbled over a loose rock, he made no move to help her up. They only speak directly to each other when they absolutely have to.

And it's driving Sam absolutely crazy. She suddenly craves all of the casual affection that she never batted an eyelash at her. Suddenly being denied it has only made her bad mood worse.

Cam hasn't said anything. Sam doesn't really think he will. Jack would have - back when he was Colonel O'Neill and still around enough to notice when things are kind of funky - but Cam's not that tuned in to them yet. He made one crack about their cycles being aligned and when that was met with glares instead of the amusement that he'd expected, he'd clearly decided to let them sort it out between themselves.

So with bravery that she isn't quite sure she even has, Sam decides to do just that - to sort it out.

Of course, she has to get him to talk to her first.

She corners him after they've eaten but before they escape into their tents. Sam usually shares with Teal'c, another remnant of Jack's days when it just seemed like the most proper course of action. Teal'c wasn't about to make a move on her, and Jack made it known that he didn't trust anyone except himself to keep Daniel from wandering off.

She's got first watch, so it isn't hard. Sam grabs the corner of Daniel's sleeve as he starts to stand up and holds it firmly. She nods toward the brush at the edge of the clearing and stares through his frown, furrowed brow, and eventual nod. She waits until they are out of earshot to turn on him.

He looks like he's primed for a fight, but she disappoints him.

"I'm sorry." She says. She's decided that plunging straight into it is really the only way this will work. "I know I've been..."

She trails off, and then makes a confusing hand gesture that would have done Jack proud.

"Uh huh." Daniel crosses his arms, and Sam is momentarily distracted by the smooth line of his bicep pressing against the t-shirt sleeve.

She stands a little straighter. "I know I've been testy lately."

"Sam?" Daniel says, mimicking her suddenly improved posture. "If you're having a bad day, week, whatever - that's fine. But you've only been... 'testy'... with me. Care to explain?"

"No."

"No?"

"No. I don't care to explain." She's made her apology, and dragging this out wasn't part of the plan. "Are we okay?"

"Sam!" Daniel throws one hand into the air. "No, we're not okay. Not until you tell me exactly why you've been treating me as if I have the plague for the past week."

"Daniel, it's-" Sam falters. Man, she is really bad at this emotional stuff. "I just... I can't go into it, okay?"

She moves to walk away but his hand shoots out and grabs her arm. She goes still and he steps closer to her. "Come on, Sam. Something is different. Something has been different for a while, hasn't it? Since you came back."

She kind of wants to bury her face in her palms. This is not a conversation that she wants to have. She's finally achieved some kind of relative peace with herself and her life and her seemingly permanent single status. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Couple of weeks ago, when Cassie was here?" Daniel says. She turns around to face him because it feels too reminiscent of a soap opera to have this conversation with her back turned.

She knows exactly what he's talking about, of course. Teal'c had been out of town, which was okay - Teal'c and Cassie never spent much time alone together, which limited their bonding. The little family reunion had involved dinner for three and movies on the sofa. Cassie sat between them for a while, indulging in a habit from the childhood that seems to Sam have flown by in the blink of an eye. She'd even fallen asleep like that, her head tilting onto Daniel's shoulder while her fingers were still linked with Sam's.

Sam had been growing tired herself, too, and she'd looked over at Daniel only to find him staring back at her. It could have been a sweet moment; should have been, really. But their eyes met, locked, and then... lingered.

It had been a moment. Definitely a moment, no doubting it. A more than friends, crackling with attraction backed by years of deep emotion kind of moment. The kind of moment that lead to Sam looking a little too deep inside of herself and coming to some conclusions that she wasn't entirely comfortable with.

She sighs. "Yeah."

"So, that's why...?"

"Yeah."

"And now you're just...?"

"I don't know. I really just... I don't know what to do." She looks at the ground, at the tree, at her wristwatch. Anywhere but at Daniel. "I should go back, I'm on first watch."

"Not yet." Daniel's hand slides down her arm and closes around her wrist. "I know we can't really do this here, but - once we get back, we should really sit down and talk this over."

She releases the breath she'd been holding. A reprieve, however brief. She nods, ready to agree to anything that means she can extract herself from this awkward situation.

"Good." Daniel smiles suddenly, happy enough to make Sam instantly suspicious. "Dinner Thursday night? We're due back around noon, so let's say - eight? That should give us both plenty of time to debrief and rest up."

Wait, what?

Dinner? Eight?

...what?


End file.
